Benno's Bear by N. F. Zucker

It is my goal this summer to read more, both with the kids and on my own. One of the main purposes of my own reading it to find more chapter books that I think would be good for my kids. Since I am a very ordered person I couldn't just start grabbing random books and have decided to choose one book going in reverse alphabet order, because I'm a rebel like that.

The first one I have chosen in the Junior Fiction category is Benno's Bear. I really liked this book. It's about an 11 year old boy and his father who have been caught stealing. The father is sent to jail and Benno ends up staying with a police officer as his care giver. I will definitely be reading this to my kids, probably not for a couple years. I think it would be a good one for an eight or nine year old or older. I am not a crier in movies, but books get to me, and this one did it. Maybe that's only because I stayed up to late and had a migraine when reading it, but there it is.

Abigail's Favorite Books

Abi has a really good attention span for long picture books that are not my favorite to read to a two year old, but she loves them and sits through them nicely, so we do it anyway.


A Toddler's Favorites

• Dr Suess books, all of them, especually How the Grinch Stole Christmas and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
• Baby board books, particularly the Halloween ones and the one word per page ones.
  

Grace's Favorite Books

Grace isn't reading books herself, so this list is the ones that she likes best to have read to her, mainly the longer ones. Grace has a much better attention span for non picture books being read to her then Scout does; she has a lot more interest in them.

A Preschooler's Favorites

• Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss-Glasser (She especially likes the sticker ones)
• The Bailey School Kids by Marcia Thornton, Debbie Dadey, and Jones Dadey (These are intermediate level mysteries that have the boogie man or were wolfs and stuff like that in them, but not really in a scary way. Scout doesn't care much for them, but Grace loves them.)
• Matilda by Roald Dahl (I didn't like this book. I thought it wasn't written as a children's book but the subject is. Grace, however, loved it. She also really loved watching the movie after finishing the book.)
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (Grace loved the book, but the movie was boring for her.)

Scout's Favorite Books

I needed somewhere to put books my kids like so we can remember what they were and find other ones, so I thought I had better put it on here so I wouldn't loose it. These lists will continually be updated.

Scout is reading pretty much all her books by herself. We still occasionally read picture books to her, but she gets bored when we read chapter books with her; she would rather just read them herself. We are always looking for books around her level that she would like, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know. She definitely favors girly books, and is just beginning to warm up to books that are gender neutral. I also have put them in order of how advanced of a book they are, with the easier ones first.


A First Grader's Favorites

• Rumply Crumply Stinky Pin by Laurence Anholt (this is a really funny book, short and easy, all the girls thought it was funny, it's a retelling of Rumple Stiltzkin)
• Minnie and Moo by Denys Cazet (There are several of these super easy, beginning chapter books that one of our librarians suggested as a "Can't Miss" series. Scout says she likes them because they are funny.)
• The Golly Sisters by Betsy Byars
  
• Junie B Jones by Barbara Park and Denise Brunkus
  
• The Pony Crazed Princess Series by Diana Kimpton and Lizzie Finlay (We read the first one to her at the beginning of kindergarten and she loved it, that summer she read it herself and has continued to read the others)